The Element Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures: The Ultimate A–Z of Fantastic Beings from Myth and Magic. John Matthews

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СКАЧАТЬ to drive people mad with its poison. The Basilisk shares with Medusa the ability to strike onlookers dead by its glance alone. There were certain strategies that helped protect the traveller during encounters with it: you might carry a crystal globe to reflect back the petrifying stare, you could carry a weasel which can give as good as it gets by way of venomous biting, or you could take a cockerel with you, since its crowing would send the Basilisk into fits.

      The magical property of the Basilisk is primarily the power to protect whatever you want kept safe from theft or attack. Many Gnostic seals of the late classical era carry the image of the basilisk in order to ward off evil, in much the same way that military breastplates carry a gorgonian (an image of the Medusa’s head). Because one of the main antidotes to the Basilisk was to carry a cockerel, the creature changed its shape in medieval legend, becoming a serpent with a cockerel’s head, neck and legs, but retaining its serpent tail. Variant forms give it a human face on a cockerel’s head and dragon’s wings. A great brass cannon was named after it in Tudor times in the hope that enemies would be stricken down as fatally as though by the venom of the beast itself. For Christians, the Basilisk was an ultimate symbol of the devil in his form as the one who tempted our first parents, Adam and Eve: beautiful in form and colour but deadly to the human race.

      A serpentine Basilisk appears in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, where Harry finally defeats it with the sword brought to him by Fawkes, the Phoenix that lives in Professor Dumble-dore’s study. He pierces the Basilisk in the eye, depriving him of his petrifying stare.

      BASKET MONSTER

      Among the Zulu, the Basket Monster looks just like an open basket ready to receive contents. One mother laid her baby in such a basket to stop it rolling away while she worked. However, when she turned back to her child, she saw with horror that the basket had grown legs and had scuttled away with the baby, which she never saw again.

      BASTET

      The Egyptian Bastet was a cat-headed goddess who was worshipped at Bubastis. Her name means ‘the tearer’ or ‘the renderer’. Despite these harsh epithets, Bast or Bastet became less savage and more benign in later belief, transferring her more destructive qualities to Sekhmet with whom she was closely alllied. It was held that Bastet was the spark of rage in the eye of her father, Ra, and the instrument of his vengeance. It was forbidden to hunt lions on her festival day, which was held, according to the lunar calendar, in April or May. Bastet was the mother of Miysis, the lion god known as the ‘Lord of Slaughter’, and also mother of Khensu, the moon god and Mihos, the lion-headed god. Bastet’s myth is connected with the eye of the moon, and her temple, which became the focus for the cat, as it was where many mummified cats were buried in special cemeteries.

      BAT

      The nocturnal appearance of bats after twilight, combined with their many-folded faces, long ears, uncanny upside-down sleeping and seemingly erratic flying have made them associated with evil spirits and beings who haunt the darkness. The bat has its own place in medieval bestiaries because it was believed to be a creature symbolizing affection; this was based on the observation of bats hanging together in closely bunched groups. The bat was demonized in biblical tradition, where it was called ‘the devil’s bird’, even becoming one of the shapes of the devil himself with bat wings. German peasants would nail bats to doors to ward off the devil. In South America, bats were thought of as the ‘devourers of the sun’ who flocked around the Aztec lord of the underworld, Mictlantecuhtli, carrying human heads in their claws. European naturalists furthered the evil reputation of the bat by calling the Central and South American Desmodus family, vampire bats, thus making an association between bats and vampiric activity.

      In Africa, bats are believed to be the spirits of the dead. They hover around the body of the deceased until doomsday. The Rom (gypsy) women of Egypt use bat’s blood to anoint the private parts of newborn girl babies in the hope that no hair will grow around her pudenda, thus making her attractive to her husband when she grows up. Such girls are called muwatwata or ‘visited by bats’. Bats in Egypt are considered to be the guardians of pure water, since the sultan of the bats lives in a deep well-shaft. In South Africa, people tell stories of bats originally being little people with human faces, but elsewhere it is said that bats can help young men discover treasure, but only after they have offered blood to drink.

      In Greece and parts of Africa, the bat was a symbol of vigilance. In the pre-Colombian and later Kogi mythology, the bat was considered to be one of the first animals ever created – the offspring of the sun’s love for his son. The bat subsequently acquired an association with sorcery. In China, fu, the word for ‘bat’, sounds the same as the word for ‘happiness’ and so it stands for good luck. Gifts are accompanied by a card with a pair of bats on it, to convey health, wealth, longevity and an easy death. Among the Ainu of northern Japan, the bat is said to be the one animal that did not come from heaven but was made by the creator in this world. They see the bat as wise and courageous, and able to combat the demons who bring disease.

      BATTLESWINE

      The ferocious boar who battle the heroes Hildisvini and Sachrimnir in Scandinavian myth.

      BAYARD

      Bayard was the legendary horse given by the four sons of Aymon to Charlemagne in early medieval France. Originally, all four sons could ride the horse which elongated to accommodate all the brothers. Bayard was immortal and could gallop faster than any other horse.

      BEAN NIGHE

      The Bean Nighe or washing woman of the Scottish Highlands is a fairy who is seen washing the bloodstained linen of those doomed to die. If the linen is that of the one who observes the Bean Nighe at her bloody laundry, then he will not have long to live. She was particularly busy during the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745 when she was observed by many. It is said that those who approach the Bean Nighe carefully may ask of her three requests, but she will only grant these if the questioner first answers three questions to her satisfaction. The more daring adventurer might seize on one of her breasts by approaching her from behind. If any is successful in sucking from her breast, then he or she becomes the Bean Nighe’s foster child and, as such, is qualified to receive second sight. Some believe the Bean Nighe to be the ghost of a woman who has died in childbirth. When such a death was likely, the family would help wash all the woman’s clothes to prevent her having to wash them in the next life forever. (See Washer at the Ford.)

      BEAR

      The bear is an important guardian animal in many regions of the northern hemisphere where it is one of the largest land mammals. There are only a few species in the southern hemisphere. The connections between bears and humans have long been noted, for bears are omnivores who can stand upright, their paws having five digits and with an intelligence that seems almost human. This likeness is part of the Korean legend, that tells of how two animals desired to become human, the tiger and the bear. They prayed daily to Hwanung, the son of heaven, Hwanin, and he told both animals to retire to a cave for a hundred days, eating only mugwort and garlic. The tiger was impatient and could not keep to this regime, but the bear continued, eventually becoming a beautiful woman who married Hwanung; their offspring founded the first Korean dynasty of kings.

      The behaviour of the bear has given rise to a widespread belief in which the bear is seen СКАЧАТЬ